Province braces for a wintry wallop

The last snowstorm of the year will blast through Nova Scotia today, bringing with it as much as 40 cm of snow.

Environment Canada says the storm will bring blowing snow, ice pellets and “a large swath of heavy snow” to the province.

The federal forecaster issued a warning to expect dangerous winter weather conditions throughout Nova Scotia as it tracks a low pressure system south of the Great Lakes.

“This is a significant nor’easter storm,” said Andy Firth, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “We have warnings out for snowfall, blowing snow and storm surges.

“We look at several models but our model is indicating possibly more than 40 (centimetres of snow).”

Heavy snow is expected to continue until around noon, according to forecasts.

High water levels and rough pounding surf due to high waves were predicted along the Atlantic coast this morning.

Storm surge warnings are in effect in northern Nova Scotia and along the Gulf of St. Lawrence coasts in Antigonish County and Cape Breton. High water and rough, pounding surf are predicted to begin late this afternoon and last into the evening.

A wind warning is also in effect throughout Sunday in Cape Breton’s Inverness County, with gusts of up to 90 km/h.

Environment Canada’s website predicts 20-40 cm of snow for most of mainland Nova Scotia, except for Eastern areas of the province, which should see the snow turn to rain for several hours today.

Snowplows hit the streets in the Halifax area ahead of the snowflakes to prepare for the storm.

Gordon Hayward, HRM’s head of winter road maintenance, said about 45 municipal plows began brining and salting the streets around 10 p.m. on Saturday. He expected an additional 50 contractor plows to help out as conditions worsened overnight and about 55 loaders and graders to help with the cleanup today.

Hayward said residents can expect main roads in the HRM to have been plowed, but sidestreets may not be fully cleared.

“The side streets may have a cut through on them, or may not,” he said. “The P-1 streets (main roads and transit routes) will have had work done on them all night. They’ll be certainly passable with caution, but they won’t be cleared right back.”

The weather prompted Halifax Stanfield International Airport to issue an advisory on its website, reminding travellers to check with their airlines about possible delays.

High winds on the Cabot Strait caused Marine Atlantic to delay a ferry crossing from Port aux Basques to North Sydney by about three hours from 11:45 p.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday, and other crossings scheduled for Sunday around noon were delayed indefinitely until weather conditions improve.